


In Ghostly Japan

by PhantomEngineer



Series: Part-Time Snake [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Lokitty, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), set in Japan for no real reason except I felt like it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 22:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18019463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomEngineer/pseuds/PhantomEngineer
Summary: After the battle in Wakanda, Thor tracks down Loki who is skulking as a cat in Japan, very much alive.





	In Ghostly Japan

It was raining, which was in some ways fitting. Thor had an umbrella to keep himself dry. It was a real umbrella, not mjölnir magicked into a disguise, which still made him sad. In some ways it didn’t matter that he hadn’t been the first owner of mjölnir or that he had since then had a new weapon crafted for himself, or even that he had found the source of his power to be within him rather than within his hammer. He had been attached to mjölnir, and nothing could change that. There had been a bond there, and it had hurt to see it shatter. His real, boringly unmagical umbrella was probably better for keeping him dry from the rain though, even if it was likely to be useless in a fight.

He crouched down. The light was low due to the storm clouds but he couldn’t begrudge them that. He was a storm god after all, lightning and thunder were as natural as breathing to him. He held no animosity towards the rains or the clouds that would accompany his thunder and lightning, sheltering them in their power so that they could split the skies. The small black cat skulking miserably under the bushes presumably felt less amenable towards the weather, as cats rarely liked being wet and rarely had umbrellas. This one wasn’t particularly wet, due to the paltry shelter of the bush and the umbrella that Thor was now holding so they were both covered.

“Brother,” he said softly, far too relieved to have finally reached the end of his seemingly never-ending quest to be angry, “Come now. Let’s go indoors, where it is warm and dry.”

The cat stared up at him for a long moment, bright green eyes glinting, and for a moment Thor thought it was all for nothing, that the cat would turn tail and flee leaving him wet and miserable beside an empty bush. But to his relief, it didn’t. It ruffled its fur in a faintly disgruntled manner, as though resenting the indignity of being rained on and having to shelter in a bush, before jumping into Thor’s arms.

Loki wrapped his arms around Thor’s shoulders and his legs around his waist, shifting back to a more æsir form even though it would have been easier for Thor to carry him while he was still a small cat. He didn’t care. He had never been all that concerned with making life easy for others. His priority had always tended more towards ensuring his own comfort and entertainment, and he wanted Thor to carry him and hug him simultaneously, even as Thor struggled to keep the umbrella covering them both.

Thor clung to him as if the world was ending, which was a futile thought as really they had both already weathered the end of their world. He felt even more blessed by the weight of an æsir Loki in his arms than he would have done had Loki merely deigned to accompany him in cat form. It felt like he was home again, like all of the years of hurt had melted away. He inhaled deeply, the scent of rain and leaves clinging to Loki’s hair and Thor had never smelt anything sweeter.

He walked through the streets, careful to keep Loki undisturbed in his arms and the umbrella covering them both. Thor didn’t mind if he got wet himself, but he didn’t want Loki to get wet. He wanted to care for him and keep him protected forever, the lingering memory of what he had for a long time believed to be both his final words to Loki and Loki’s final moments alive haunting him even after he had found the trail that hinted Loki might still be alive. His relief and joy at that fact had outweighed his anger, just as it always did.

The lady in the reception of the hotel paid no real attention to him as he walked in, dumping the umbrella unceremoniously in the umbrella stand and slipping his shoes off for the slippers provided. He had told her that the reservation was for one, maybe two. He wondered if she was unconcerned because far weirder things had happened recently, if it was because he already stood out by nature of being big and blonde, or if Loki was weaving a gentle spell to dissuade her of unnecessary interest. He didn’t care about the reasons why, as the most important thing was that he had Loki and they had a room to go to.

He made his way upstairs, Loki resting his head against Thor’s shoulder as though he too was relaxed and finally at peace. It was difficult to get the key out to unlock the door to their room, but Thor managed it despite his arms being full of the most precious thing in the universe. Gently Thor slipped his slippers off, stepping onto the tatami mats of the room with socks that felt slightly damp.

Loki untangled his legs from Thor’s waist, allowing himself to be set down. Thor noticed absentmindedly that Loki wasn’t wearing shoes, wondering if he had dispensed with them by magical means or if he had never been wearing them. He too was damp, despite the bush and Thor’s umbrella, but it didn’t matter now that they were inside.

“Here,” Thor said, handing a yukata to Loki, who took it silently. Thor stripped off his clothing, glad to change into something dry even if the yukata were not designed with gods of his stature in mind. He had thought Earth to be full of tiny, puny things when he first arrived, only to discover later that he had coincidentally ended up on the place on the planet that was of the attitude that bigger was best. Everywhere else tended to be even smaller. He wasn’t really all that surprised to find Loki somewhere like Japan, where everything was so much smaller. A small cat on a small island. As though he was deliberately distancing himself from everything remotely like Thor. 

“Do you not think I deserve an explanation?” he asked wearily, sitting down heavily on one of the cushions on the floor, looking across at Loki. Loki adjusted his obi firmly, looking elegant as always when maybe he should have looked more like a bedraggled cat. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. He wasn’t even sure if Loki had any intention of speaking to him, so he just continued to talk to the room as though by speaking the words he had carried almost as long as his grief he might be able to dispel it. “I grieved for you. I have grieved for you, again and again. I got you back, believed for a brief while that I could trust you and you fake your death again leaving me heartbroken. Why, Loki? Why?”

“You found me here,” Loki answered without answering any of Thor’s questions, sitting down beside him so that they were close but Loki could avoid meeting Thor’s gaze.

“I followed a trail of hints,” Thor grumbled, “To find that I am not the only one you have left mourning you. Because those friends of yours in Scotland still mourn and remember you as far better than you were. I can recognise your illusions, even if I can’t understand a slightest bit of logic behind them. Or quite picture you as a teacher.”

“I wasn’t a very good teacher,” Loki replied lightly, “And everyone dies. It’s part of being mortal. Seemed easiest. I’m sure they like me far more dead than they did when I was alive and with them. They never were my friends.”

Thor looked away from him, sighing in frustration, already that unpleasant mixture of angry and elated. Anger at Loki’s disdain for the feelings of others, elated at being able to hear his dismissive rationale once again. Unsure if it was a dream or a nightmare, let alone the desperate desire that it might be reality that allowed the brothers to once more sit side by side in a room in rural Japan.

“You wanted to know the trick?” Loki asked quietly, a tired sadness tinging his voice as they both remembered Thaos’s hand clenched around his throat. “There wasn’t one. I died. That was the trick.”

Thor glared at him, shifting so he could better see Loki even as Loki looked away from him to gaze into the past. “And yet, here you are…” he muttered pointedly.

“And yet here I am,” Loki agreed.

There was a long silence, stretching from cradle to grave, before Loki broke it again. “I died, because there was no other option save risk he kill you. I don’t regret it. And then, I came back. I had almost forgotten that I’d done that, a little piece of insurance I never even believed would work. That was what you found in Scotland. That life wasn’t a lie, for a time at least it was real.”

He looked up to meet Thor’s eyes, an unfamiliar honesty in his expression begging Thor to believe him in a way that Thor hadn’t seen since they were children. A truthful sincerity, caught up with a grief he couldn’t quite understand. “Years ago, when I was playing about with how far I could slip from Asgard without father or Heimdall noticing, I came to Midgard. I met a lonely little girl with green eyes like mine, and on a whim I asked her to remember me, adding in a touch of magic to power the request. A theoretical but untested spell. Promised her that if she could do that I could be her friend as long as she lived. Then I went back to Asgard and forgot all about her until I died. Because she did remember me Thor, she made herself a friend and I lived his life knowing nothing else until she died and the spell collapsed, returning me to who I truly am. And that is why I am here, because I died but I’m still me so I cheated long before I even thought I might die.”

“But you remained here, on Earth?” Thor asked, “You lived that life even after remembering that you were Loki. Why?”

“Because I made promises,” Loki replied simply, “And they may mean nothing to you but to her, to them, I was someone who could be trusted. So I kept my promises, I did my duty. When it was over I died as it was simplest, the best way to conclude the tale. They moved on. They rebuilt. I am no longer needed there.”

“Why didn’t you come to me?” Thor said sadly, “Why didn’t you let me know once you remembered?”

“I wasn’t dead yet,” Loki pointed out realistically, as though it was a perfectly normal statement to make, “I had to wait for that, otherwise it meant nothing and then there were times when I was in prison and the other phases when you believed me to be dead which would have confused matters. Besides, I had to deal with Thanos and that took a lot of time and planning. More important than social calls.”

“Thanos…” Thor murmured thoughtfully, “Was that you then? What was it you did?”

“Well,” Loki said with a sudden return to the mischievousness that Thor remembered from their youth, “Do you really think that when Thanos snapped his fingers he intended to disappear himself but leave everything else in the universe exactly the way it had been?”

“No…” Thor admitted, “I was under the impression that he wanted to kill fifty percent of life in the universe, so it did seem rather anticlimactic even if it was definitely preferable to the alternative.”

“Do you remember the golden gauntlet in the weapons vault of Asgard?” Loki asked, his eyes sparkling with delight at the trick he had pulled, just as they had glowed with laughter when he had changed all of Thor’s shoes into mice as children.

“Yes?” Thor said, uncertainly. He had never been quite as familiar with the contents as Loki had been as Loki had both tended towards attempting to memorise everything he could and had also spent a few years pretending to be Odin when he had been able to peruse it at his leisure. Thor had only ever really had access to it as Odin’s son and that had not been the same level of access that Odin himself had enjoyed, even if Odin hadn’t always actually been himself. It was the sort of thing that made no sense unless Loki was involved, because Loki had never made sense in a normal way. 

“It was just a fake. A replica. Not something capable of wielding the full powers of the Infinity Stones, but capable of having a few little spells carved into it. I never did know why father had it, but now I suppose I do. He or mother knew it would be useful.” Loki paused briefly to smile as though he knew a wicked joke that would bring misfortune to the poor victim only the victim was Thanos so Thor felt no sympathy, “However, it looked just like the real gauntlet, and so it was quite easy to simply switch them. The real gauntlet was destroyed with Asgard, meaning that the destruction of Asgard did more than just bring down Hela it also helped save the universe from Thanos. He never knew, that the gauntlet he was given was a fake with a little spell to redirect the power of the Infinity Stones inside it.”

“So,” Thor said after a long pause, “Why did you not let me know you were alive once that was done. Why did you continue to hide.” Really, all his questions came back to that. It was all he really wanted to know, all the other explanations and stories were appreciated but paled in comparison to the hurt at Loki once again vanishing from his grasp.

“I didn’t hide,” Loki grumbled, “You found me, didn’t you? I hid from everyone but you. I never really hide from you, not if you want to find me. And you did. I’m here.” 

Thor gave him a faintly unimpressed look, as though attempting to convey through his eyes alone that they clearly had different ideas about the idea of hiding versus not hiding.

“Besides,” Loki added quietly, “You were angry with me. I thought you would be more angry if you knew I’d survived.”

Thor swallowed, remembering his words to Loki moments before his death. Words he had regretted almost instantly. He reached out, running his fingers through Loki’s hair just as he had done so many times before when they had innocently believed that nothing could ever separate them. Loki’s hair was still damp, and Thor knew that they couldn’t spend the rest of eternity sitting there talking in circles.

“There’s a bath here,” he said, focusing on the future he could control, “We should wash, and soak in the hot water. Then there’s a meal so we should eat. And then we’ll sleep side by side like we used to, and if you’ll let me I’ll hold you because I never want to be apart from you ever again.”

For the first time since they had been reunited, Loki smiled a genuine smile and Thor hoped that maybe, just maybe, everything would be alright again. That he could spend the rest of eternity with Loki, both of them together and united against anything that might threaten their world.

**Author's Note:**

> (Theoretically it is almost a cross-over/fusion fic but that can easily be ignored)


End file.
